Postal voting

What is postal voting?

Postal voting can be used if you cannot get to your polling station. The postal vote pack and ballot paper is sent to you for you to vote and return before election day.

You may apply for a postal vote at any time, as long as you are registered to vote. It can be for a particular election, for a specific period of time, or permanently.

Postal votes are usually issued about ten days before an election. Completed ballot papers must be returned by 10pm on election day.

If you have a permanent postal vote, and will be away from the address your postal vote goes to around the time the postal vote pack will be issued, you may not receive your postal vote before you leave.

Postal votes can be sent abroad, however, it may take too long to reach some destinations to allow the ballot to be completed and returned by the deadline on election day.

If you are likely to be away when postal votes are sent to voters, you may wish to appoint a proxy. This is when someone votes for you instead. Find out about proxy voting.

Request a postal vote application form

To request a form pre-printed with your name and address and barcode to speed up you application for a postal vote contact the Elections Team on the details below.

Postal voting security arrangements

All postal vote applicants must supply their signature and date of birth on the application form. To help eliminate postal vote fraud, returned ballot paper statements are matched against the details held on the application form.